What happened
On July 16, 2003, at approximately 08:25 UTC, a tandem paraglider flight was conducting a passenger flight from the Melchboden/Schwendberg launch site in Hippach, Austria. The aircraft, an Airwave Duplex-S, departed from an elevation of approximately 2,000 meters.
Shortly after takeoff, at an altitude of roughly 50 meters above ground level, approximately two-thirds of the right side of the wing collapsed due to thermal turbulence. This collapse caused the glider to enter a 180-degree turn. While the pilot managed to regain control of the wing, the low altitude prevented the pilot from maneuvering the glider sufficiently away from the slope.
In an attempt to mitigate the impact during the resulting emergency landing, the pilot applied full right brake pressure and attempted to absorb the impact with his legs. The incident resulted in one serious injury to the passenger and one light injury to the pilot.
The investigation
The investigation was conducted by the Austrian Federal Safety Investigation Board (SUB) to reconstruct the sequence of events based on the pilot's statements and findings from the investigation unit. The investigation focused on the flight path and the aerodynamic behavior of the wing during the thermal event.